Ignite Your Soul
by Insanity-Reigns
Summary: A tale of a Firenation runaway and a banished prince.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

A sliver of cresant moon hung in a cloudless night sky. The velvety darkness was dotted with twinkling stars. Beneeth the serene night sky there spread a forest with a wide, rushing river winding like a great silvery-blue snake splitting it down the middle. The moon shed barely enough light to reflect the glint of blazing green eyes in the darkness. A crisp breeze sprang up and ruffled the sleek black hair of a young woman running as fast as her feet would carry her down a dusty woodland path. Her bare feet thudded against the ground, breaking the scilence of the night. A harsh cry rang out behind her, slicing the air like a blade.

Emerald eyes constantly darting about searching for a refuge, the girl ran onwards, a leather pouch clutched tightly in one hand as she raced like a hunted animal down the path. A burst of flame grazed by her head, missing her cheek by a hairs width. She ducked as another burst shot at her, then jumped to the side as a third brushed by her arm. She quickly turned and shot a firey blast of her own, hitting one of her persuers square in the chest. He grunted in surprise and fell backwards. His companions never stopped to help him, just lept over or ran around his fallen body in persuit of their quarry. The girl's pace was slowing as she gasped to suck air into her lungs. She heard the thundering of a rino's pawsteps. She could never outrun a soldier on a rino. She skidded to a halt and leapt behind a wide oak tree like a nimble deer, panting for breath as her persuers raced by her. It wasn't long however before they stopped and started searching the trees.

"The little theif coulnd't have gone far. Search the forest. Take her dead or alive." Came a gruff voice from the path. The girl could hear the shuffling footsteps of the Firenation soldiers searching through the trees, and the grunt of a komodo rino as it pawed the ground impatiently. Hiding the leather sack in a knothole in the tree, she stepped out, quiet as a drifting breeze on the summer air. She weaved through the trees like a shadow until she came across two soldiers, noisily stomping around, looking behind bushes and trees.

The girl thought quickly, trying desperatly to devise a plan. She waited behind a tree until the soldiers passed her, then came up behind them, silent as ever, and bashed their helmeted heads together. With a metalic thud, the two men dropped to the ground. "This way!" shouted the others, and they all ran to the place where the sound came from. She swore silently to herself and ran back to the tree, snatching the leather bag and tying it around her waist. She shot out of the trees and onto the path, ready to make a stand.

There were six of them, not including the one on the rino. A ball of fire ignited in her hands and she lashed out at the nearest two soldiers, knocking them on their feet. The remaining four all started firing at her, closing in as she struggled to stay on her feet. Her eyes blazed with a natural fighting spirit, and a snarl rose from her chest. Within seconds, all four of the firebenders were either lying on the ground or running off into the trees, the scent of scorched flesh lingering on the air. The man on the rino, who's face was not covered by a helmet, looked on in shocked surprise. With a swoosh of flame, he to was lying on the ground, groaning and struggling to stand. The girl leapt on the rino.

"Thanks for the ride. Send my regards to the Fire Lord." She said in a sweet voice. She spurred the great beast and it turned around, lumbering off down the path.

"Sarafina, the Firenation will capture you yet! You will suffer for your actions!" the wounded man shouted, clutching a hand now rendered useless by the flames from Sarafina's hand. She rolled her eyes as she continued on.

"That's the problem with firebenders these days, always so sure of themselves. They'll never take me, at least not alive anyway." She said to herself, riding off into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The sun rose steadily on the horizon, tainting the whispy clouds red with its rays. The beautiful scene was broken by a trail of black smoke chugging upwards, smearing the sky with an ugly streak of blackish grey. The source of this smoke was a small, Firenation ship that floated along on the river. There was really no need to burn the coal to fuel the ship as the river was sufficient enough to pull it along, but of course you never tell Prince Zuko how to run his ship.

The banished prince was standing at the bow, hands folded behind his back as his amber eyes gazed lazily across the forest. "Uncle, tell me again _why_ we are going down this river." He asked iritably.

"I told you, there's a village somewhere along here that sells wonderfull tea leaves, and I would like to stop before they get out of stock." Iroh said, stepping forward to stand behind his nephew. Zuko sighed and put his hand to his forhead, shaking his head as he said,

"Uncle, how many times must I tell you, we don't have time for…"

"Now now, Zuko, there will be plenty of time to catch the Avatar. Who knows, he might even be in this forest." Iroh interupted.

"Whatever. I'll be in my cabin." Zuko said. Turning and walking off down the deck, his boots thudding on the wood. Something suddenly caught his attention. There was a komodo rino tied to a tree, grazing by the riverbank. And sleeping not to far away from it was a girl clad in a simple black dress with red trim who wore no shoes and had long, sleek black hair that fell onto her shoulders.

"Stop the ship!" Zuko barked, and soon the ship chugged to a halt as the anchor was thrown overboard. He had a quick confrence with his crew, then the ramp slid down onto the sandy bank and a band of five firebenders, headed by Zuko, slipped as quietly as they could into the forest.

Sarafina slowly opened her eyes to the breaking day. She yawned and streatched, then stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. She lifted her hand to a pile of sticks and soon had a fire going. She patted the rino's flank and it gave a happy grunt. She was preparing to go foraging through the woods for some breakfast when her path was suddenly blocked by firebenders in full uniform. She turned to run to the rino and ran straight into Zuko. He grabbed her wrists and snarled into her face, "Don't move!"

Sarafina looked at his face and saw the red scar that spread across his right eye and instantly knew who she was dealing with. Her emerald eyes betrayed no fear as she tried to pull away. "I mean you no harm, why are you attacking me like this! I'm just a traveler!" she lied. But Zuko only smiled.

"Just a traveler, are you? Well Sarafina, why don't you travel with me? I'm sure my father would love to see you travel right into his dungeons." Zuko said as his crew came forward, blocking any escape she could have made into the forest.

With the speed and ferocity of a born firebender, she whipped out her leg and swiped it across Zuko's, causing him to fall on his back with a thud in the wet sand. She drew a whip of fire from the air and lashed it out at the firebenders blocking her escape. They fell to the ground like wheat beneeth a sythe and Sarafina sprang off into the forest, with Zuko hot in persuit. She turned and blasted a fireball his direction, but he countered it and kept coming. As she turned her head back to focus on the path ahead, she tripped over a root jutting from the ground and gave a gasp of pain as she hit the ground, her foot trapped beneeth the root. And then the world went black as she felt something heavy hit her head.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Sarafina awoke with a pounding pain in her head. She looked around and groggily said to herself, "Where am I?" then the events of that morning all came rushing back to her. She immediately started launching fireballs at the bars to the small cell. It did no good, the metal stood as sturdy as ever. She tried the same thing with the walls. That didn't work either. "Let me out of here, you gutless worms!" she shouted, giving breath to a burst of fire from her mouth in frustration.

A few moments later she heard the clunking of boots and Prince Zuko stood outside the cell, looking in on his prisoner. "You're not going anywhere. I'm keeping you right here, then I can turn in you and the Avatar. I'll be welcomed back with open arms."

Sarafina snorted. "Yeah, open arms to strangle the life out of you. Face it, Prince. Your father hates you. The sooner you accept that the less miserable you'll be."

"You know nothing of what my father thinks of me." Zuko snarled. "What would you know, all you are is a disgraceful run-away."

"And you're just a banished prince." Sarafina replied airily. Zuko shot her a look of hate, then stomped back up on deck.

"Fine, be that way." Sarafina said to herself. She paced the cell a few times, looking for some way to escape. There were no windows, the only light came from the open trap door that led from below decks up into the sunshine. The cell was placed in a corner, and all the space around it was taken up by barrels of food and water. Which by the way she wouldn't mind having some of. She sighed and slumped in a corner. Above her she heard the stomp of the rhino she had commandeered from the Firenation general. She ran her fingers through her sleek black hair, something she often did when trying to find her way out of predicaments, which she was in quite often.

General Iroh came down and slid a plate and a wooden cup between the bars. "Mmm, stale bread and river water. My favorite." Sarafina said sarcasticly as she picked up the meager offering and retreated back to the far corner.

"Be happy you got anything at all." Iroh replied. "My nephew doesn't seem to like you much."

"He really doesn't seem to like anyone much." Sarafina said around a mouthfull of bread.

"It really isn't his fault. He's been through a lot. You see…"

"Yeah, I know the story." Sarafina said. "I guess I'd be a bit messed up to if my father burned half my face off after trying to do something right. But of course I ditched before my father could do something stupid. He always wanted me to be loyal to my nation. It's kinda hard to do when its so screwed up."

"At least you understand." Iroh said. Then his voice dropped to a whisper. "You know, if it was up to me, I'd just let you go on your way. But its not. I'll try to get you some better food tonight."

"Well thanks, but I don't need your sympathy." Sarafina replied, pushing the empty plate and cup back through the bars. Iroh picked them up and shrugged.

"Ah well. I can't say I didn't try." He then walked back upstairs, leaving Sarafina to herself again. She took to pacing, every once in a while a fireball would ignite in her hand out of frustration. She tried slamming herself against the bars, but that only resulted in a heavily bruised shoulder. A few hundred paces and quite a few fireballs later, Sarafina slumped to the ground, admiting to herself that this place was escape proof. She curled up in a ball and fell into a deep slumber.

When Sarafina awoke, the sky outside was turning a dusky shade of grey. There was a plate of leftover scraps and a cup of water just inside the bars. Sarafina made quick work of the small meal and once again took to pacing.

"Are you hoping you'll wear a hole in the floor?" came a voice from the far wall. Sarafina looked up to see Zuko's amber eyes whatching her through the shadowy half-darkness.

" 'Tis better than nothing." Sarafina replied, glaring icyly at the prince.

"You're not getting out of this cell."

"Wanna bet?"

"I didn't come down here to argue." Zuko said, taking a step closer to the bars. "I just… I just wanted to know why you hate the Firenation so much. I would do anything to be accepted by them, and you seem to go out of your way to make them hate you."

"I could never live the way I wanted to in the Firenation." Sarafina began. "I was always having to follow orders. When I was 13 I 'disrespected' a Firenation admiral and, like you, I was fourced into an Agni-Kai. But I won. I ground his ass to a pulp. He would have died had they not pulled me away. I was beaten and fourced into three years of hard labor. When they finally let me go, they tried to make me join the Firenavy. They said my Firebending skills were fantastic. But why would I after they made the last three years of my life a living hell? I declined and continued living the oppressed life of a Firenation civilian.

I saw your Agni-Kai with your father. It just added to my rage against the Firenation. It made me angry that someone could do that to their own son." Sarafina paused and looked down. "I never knew my father, he was killed in the war before I was born." There was a long pause, and both Zuko and Sarafina where silent, each thinking about the hardships with their fathers. Then Sarafina continued.

"After that I had taken to helping prisoners of war escape. But of course I was caught. This time I was beaten and chucked in prison. They thought I would rot there. But I escaped and took off. Ever since I have been living as my own person, and of course theiving from and causing trouble in the Firenation ever chance I get."

"I saw the bag you had stolen from the Firenation camp." Zuko said, tossing said bag up and down in his hand. He let it fall to the ground and a dozen or so rubies spilled out. Sarafina smiled slightly as she recalled the events of last night.

"They were camping outside an Earthnation village, waiting for nightfall so they could sneak in and kidnap an important leader to the Earthnation. They had stolen the rubies from a traveler, so I took the liberty of stealing them back. I was about on my way to find the poor old man they stole them from and return his property when you showed up."

"I'm sure he'll live without them." Zuko said, picking up the leather pouch and pocketing the rubies. Sarafina didn't reply, just shot him an icy glare.

"Well, I'll leave you to sleep. Tommorow we are stopping at a village so my uncle can buy some tea and then we're continuing the search for the Avatar." With that he left, leaving Sarafina in the growing darkness. She curled up in the corner and fell asleep, wondering what tomorrow would bring.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

It was early afternoon the next day when the ship dropped anchor, and Zuko and his uncle entered the village. It was a small, communal town made up of straw huts, and wooden carts selling all kinds of fruits and vegatables bordered the narrow dirt paths.

"Hurry up and get your tea uncle, we have to get moving." Zuko said impatiently as Iroh wandered off the path to a cart selling old knick-knacks.

"Now now Zuko, don't be so impatient. Look at all these priceless antiques! Some of them might be worth millions!" his uncle replied, sifting through a crate of old jewlery.

Zuko slapped his hand to his forhead and sighed. "I'm going to go do something productive and ask the locals about the Avatar. Be back at the ship in an hour." Zuko said, then stalked off moodily.

Sarafina lazily blinked her eyes as sunlight filtered through the window. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Must have overslept a bit…" she said to no one in particular. She was increadibly startled when she got an answer.

"No kidding. I was just about to take this food back if you weren't gonna wake up soon." There was a man just outside the bars with a plate of leftover food, a leg of roast duck and a rather over-ripe fruit. He slid it through the bars and she took it and sat back in the corner. The man walked out, leaving her to tear at the duck, which was rather old and over cooked.

She picked up the fruit and tossed it up and down a bit. Deciding it didn't seem very edible, she tossed it out the far window, listening to it fall into the river with a splunk. Then, with nothing better to do, she began to practice firebending. She aimed a swoosh at the bars of the cell, not expecting anything to happen. She was surprised when a bar at the far end gave in slightly. She walked over and closely examined it. It was made from a different material than the rest of the bars. A material that wasn't fireproof. She was about to further test this theory when the clunking of boots sounded on the deck above her.

_I'll have to wait until nightfall when they're all asleep. _Sarafina thought to herself. So she went back to her firebending as the ship began to chug off down the wide river.

The sky was starting to dim into a pale greyish black when Zuko came down into the cell with a plate of food. "Having fun down here, I asume?" he asked, sliding the tray between the bars.

"Oh yeah. Great fun. I am just having a blast." She said, leaving the food where it was.

"I heard you firebending from up here. Not trying to cause trouble now, are we?"

"Nah, just a way to vent my frustration and spend my energy. My legs are really getting cramped you know."

"Hm." Was Zuko's only reply. "Are you gonna eat that, or should I take it back?" he asked, gesturing towords the food.

"I'll eat it eventually." Sarafina replied. There was a moment of silence, then Zuko broke it.

"I wish you were on my side. I could use a firebender like you to help me catch the Avatar. I'm sure my father would forgive what you have done if you turned him in with me."

Sarafina gave a sort of giggling snort and replied, "You really think so? The only way that man would want me back in his nation is if my head was mounted on the wall."

"You seem awefuly quick to think that my father could never forgive someone."

"That's because he can't Zuko. Why can't you get that through your thick skull? Avatar or not, Ozai thinks you are a failure, just because you give a damn about other people."

"Don't speak about my father that way! You have no idea what he thinks of me! I was disloyal to my nation, and I got my just punishment."

"So you think that because you tried to save a bunch of inocent people that you deserved to be thrown onto this crap-heap of a boat and sent to find some twelve year old kid on a giant fluffy beast?"

"Well when you put it that way…"

"You mean when I put it the way it really is."

"That isn't the way it really is."

"Is too."

"Is not."

And this argument continued for a good while, and when they both finally fell silent, small sparks of fire were jumping about in their hands, threating to leap forward and destroy whatever was in its path. Zuko turned around and gave breath to a giant plume of fire from his mouth.

"You are infuriating! Why do I keep you on this boat?" he yelled.

"I dunno. How about you let me go and both of us can be on our merry way?" Sarafina replied.

"No. I'll turn you in to my father so you can suffer at the hands of the Firenation."

"I'll bash my head in against a wall before I go back to the Firenation."

"Suit yourself. But I'm not cleaning the blood stains off the wall."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Zuko stomped up the stairs, leaving Sarafina alone. _Finally._ She thought. _Now for that bar..._ She walked to the bar and pushed on it. It stood fast and didn't move. She lit a fire in her hand and held it to the bar. After about twenty minutes, she was rewarded with a slow trickle of liquid metal. It would take a long time to melt the bar, but she could do it. She could escape! She spent a huge chunk of the night slowly melting away the metal in the bar. The moon was high and all the stars were out when Sarafina decided to take a break. _The rest can wait till tommorow night_. She thought. She slumped against the wall and fell asleep with visions of freedom prancing in her head.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Sarafina woke late once again. She got up and streatched in a pool of sunlight cascading from the window. She happily ate her rations of food, little as they were, and then pushed against the bar. It gave slightly, but still held tight. She estimated that it would take at least another two nights before it was loose enough to push out.

After a few hours of sitting, she found herself getting rather bored. So she started singing. Her voice was not at all pretty and had a rather rowdy sound about it. She used the basic tune of a song she picked up in an Earthkingdom town, making up most of the lyrics as she went along. She was into the third verse, singing about how horrible it was to be trapped in a ship with nought else to do than listen to Iroh's snoring when Zuko came tromping down the stairs.

"Will you stop with that aweful racket! Do you want us all to go def?" he said, his hands over his ears.

"Don't you like my singing?" Sarafina said sweetly, batting her eyelids and folding her hands in front of her in a very girly kind of way.

"Quite frankly, no." Zuko replied.

"I'd like to see you sing better." She retorted, poking out her tounge immaturely. "Besides, you can't say my lyrics weren't good."

"Uncle does tend to get rather loud at night. Sometimes I wonder weather or not the rhinos got loose and were running about on deck." After a joyful snigger from both of them, the room fell silent.

"This chamber pot needs to be cleaned." Sarafina said, breaking the silence.

"Erm… I'll send someone down later." Zuko replied. "Until then you'll just have to hold it."

"Okee dokee." Sarafina replied airily.

"You seem awefully happy today." Zuko said almost suspiciously.

"So do you. You're like a little ball of sunshine come to brighten my cloudy day!" Sarafina replied without a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Zuko just gave a little grunt of reply. Once again there was silence. _Why isn't he leaving?_ Sarafina thought.

"It's a beautiful day." Sarafina noted, looking out the window. "If I were you I'd be out enjoying it. I love the sunshine and the light breeze and the sound of water."

Once again a slight grunt was Zuko's only reply. There was something else on his mind, she could tell.

"Something wrong?" she asked. _Why do I care?_ She added in her mind.

"I'm just… thinking. About what you've been saying." He said hesitantly. Then, as if he regreted telling her that, he added, "Nevermind. It's nothing."

"It's not nothing." Sarafina said gently. "I understand you've been through a lot. I understand why it's taken you this long to realize the truth."

Once again there was a grunt. Then after a moment of silence, as if he were putting words together in his head, Zuko said, "I've been living like this for so long. It was all I had to live for. If he doesn't take me back, if he just takes the Avatar and sends me back into exile, then what do I live for? Why would I live? A life with no honor is no life at all."

"Zuko, do you think I have any honor among the Firenation? Do you think it does Ozai proud to look at me and what I've done?" then she paused, waiting for an answer.

"No, I guess not."

"Exactly. The only honor I have is honor to myself. And that's real honor. If you're true to yourself and live to be yourself and not someone else, you truly have freedom."

After another silence, Sarafina added, "Wow, that was smarmy as hell, wasn't it?" and gave an unenthusiastic laugh, expecting Zuko to laugh with her. But he didn't, and her laugter died out on its own.

"I never thought someone like you could so quickly cause me to doubt my own meaning of life." He said after a while. Then he stood up, his back turned away from Sarafina. "I'll send someone down to empty the chamberpot." And with that he left, leaving Sarafina in a mix of pity and satisfaction.

Maybe he can change for the better. She thought. Then she went back to her song, humming it softly and making up lyrics in her head. These lyrics were different though, and she was glad that they were kept buzzing in her head instead of sung in the open. Because what she sung in her head made her almost ashamed. But she kept humming and closed her eyes, happy to feel the sun on her face.


End file.
